Magnetic HammerJanuary 1965
Electronics World

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from Electronics World, published May 1959
- December 1971. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

If you ever have the opportunity to read the history of the
engineering efforts that went into designing and building the
Saturn V rocket, you will be amazed at the ingenuity and
incredible work that went into its creation. Margins of error
approached single digits in some instances, like with some of
the fuel tanks. According to the book NASA Apollo 11: An
Insight into the Hardware from the First Manned Mission to Land
on the Moon, re-design was constantly required to remove
weight from already-completed assemblies in order to compensate
for overweight components that could not be kept within their
budget allocations. Some portions of fuel tanks were so thin
that a finger poke would deform the container. This news item
from a 1965 edition of Electronics World reports on
work being done with a powerful magnetic hammer on a fuel tank
section. Note the absence of hearing protection or any other
kind of safety device on the technician.

Magnetic Hammer

A magnetic hammer is being used at NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala. to smooth out distortions
in segments of the Saturn V fuel tank. Eight of the segments
are joined to form the dome-shaped end of the tank. The hammer's
force results from a strong magnetic field set up for about
500 microseconds from the high-voltage power supply. The segments,
costing about $30,000 each, are made to such close tolerances
that distortion from welding fittings into them, such as the
one in the center, makes them useless. The hammer has salvaged
8 segments.

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